Simon & Schuster, August 1, 2017.
Four Stars
On a frozen, snow-covered morning, the body of
popular high school student Lucinda Hayes is found in a local park. In the
small Colorado neighbourhood, everyone knew Lucinda – and everyone is affected
by her death, whether they liked her or not.
Girl in Snow is narrated by three characters with connections to Lucinda.
Cameron is an anxious, unpopular boy who was obsessed with Lucinda – he drew
detailed portraits of her and watched her through her bedroom window at night.
Jade is an edgy girl with an alternative style, whose alcoholic mom and
miserable home life make her jealous of Lucinda’s seemingly perfect world – she
also admittedly hated Lucinda for stealing her babysitting job. Finally, Russ
is the officer in charge of investigating Lucinda’s murder, and he also has a strong
connection to the family of his main suspect, Cameron.
Each character works to expose the others’ secrets
while confronting their own emotions as they all search for the truth about
Lucinda’s death. The novel explores how people can see us and interpret our
lives in different ways, while never knowing the truth about who we are – not just
Lucinda, but all of the characters are judged by who they appear to be. Cameron
expresses himself through his artwork, while Jade’s sections often shift into
her dramatic screenplay in which she envisions the scenes that she wishes had
taken place, and the conversations that sounded better in her mind.
Lucinda could have been killed by anyone in her small
suburb, but as more backstory is revealed through the eyes of different
narrators, the identity of the murderer becomes inevitable. This novel is
ostensibly a mystery-thriller, but the focus is ultimately on character
development. The only exception is Lucinda, who remains fairly flat, but she
acts as a device to bring everyone else together. The story is written in
clear, concise prose, yet it is saturated with depth and emotion – Kukafka’s
words are evocative without being overly descriptive. As the characters become
increasingly intertwined, they show the unknown connections between all of us –
and how appearances can be deceiving.
I received this book from Simon & Schuster and
NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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